Heating Oil Explained – Understanding your home’s fuel source

You heat your home with oil. But other than seeing the delivery truck in your driveway a few times a year, you don’t know much about it. So what exactly is heating oil? And why is it so critical for your family’s comfort?

What is Heating Oil

Heating oil is a petroleum product refined from crude oil and sold mainly for use in boilers, furnaces, and water heaters.

Who Uses It

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the majority (85%) of U.S. residential and commercial consumption occurs in the Northeast of the country. The top 5 residential consuming states, as of 2017, are:

New York

Pennsylvania

Massachusetts

Connecticut

Maine

Consequently, about 5.7 million households in the United States overall, and 20% of households in the Northeast use oil as their main heating fuel. As a result, in 2017, about 3 billion gallons of oil were sold to these residential consumers and about 35% of the total commercial consumption occurred in the Northeast as well. Many households, in addition to commercial and institutional buildings, also use oil to heat water, though in much smaller amounts. See U.S. Energy Information Administration for more information.

Demand in the Northeast is highly seasonal, so as a result, most usage occurs during the heating season months from October through March. Consequently, demand also affects pricing. See our blog post: Why do home heating oil prices fluctuate?

Where Does Our Supply Come From

The United States has two main sources:

Domestic oil refineries

Imports from other countries

U.S. refineries supply most of the U.S. distillate demand. However, imports generally supplement supplies during the winter, mostly to help meet the high consumer demand in the Northeast.

How is It Transported

Distillate products are moved throughout the United States by pipelines, tankers, barges, trains, and trucks. Refiners and other suppliers send the product to storage terminals for distribution by local delivery companies, such as Levco, directly to consumers.

Little Known Fact – Heating oil is dyed red. This is required by the Internal Revenue Service because the color identifies the fuel as exempt from the federal, state, and local taxes applied to fuels sold for use on public roadways and as illegal for use in vehicles that normally operate on roadways.

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The service person arrived on time, just as the reminder call said he would. The work was a routine maintenance and... cleaning of the boiler. Everything was reported to be OK and the area around the unit was clean and neat at the end of the service.read more

The service man, Wilson was on time and performed his work in a very professional way. He cleaned up afterwards and... explained to me in detail the work that he performed. The furnace is functioning MUCH better. I should have switched to Levco years ago.. Thank you Jim McDonaldread more

Levco is readily available and communicates very well with its customers. Levco was accurate with their arrival time to... service our heating equipment. They were also very clean and efficient in their work. We are very pleased and can highly recommend Levco to anyone looking to change service providers.read more

This is an appeal to owner. We have called at least 7 times for oil delivery in last 2 weeks. Our tank is now on... empty. We were promised delivery last week, yesterday 11/18 and called again today 11/19. Each time we were told delivery would be made and today we were told it would be tomorrow and if we ran out they would send a service truck. Burner was just serviced last week and nozzle was replaced and would probably have to be done again. We don’t know who to talk to. Is there a major problem? Can you please help ?read more

The best company I've been with! I've tried all: HI-HO, Standard, etc! By far Levco are the best! They respond to an... emergency within minutes, they have knowledgeable and courteous technicians, they do a thorough job and they pick up the phone every time! Levco sets the bar high in this industry and they are a local company! You are the best!read more

A storm knocked out our power and once the power was restored, no heat or hot water. Levco had a tech out in short... order to make repairs, but the damage was extensive and more parts required. Ted, the technician went the extra mile to get the heat and hot water restored until the final repairs could be made. I could not be happier with this service.read more

Technician was through, and pointed out two parts of the system to watch for leakage. Nice guy, too.
On yesterday's... visit, the technician diagnosed the issue, identified it as a task for a plumber, and executed a temporary "work around" fix that will serve us well until our plumber can come over. As usual, Levco came through as champs...that's why we've been Levco clients for over 30 years.read more